psql is very slow

Hi all,

 

I have a psql 7.3.4, apache 2.0.40, perl  v5.8.0. Database is pretty big, (dump is about 100Megs).

But all the operations are very, very slow.

Is any possibility to make postgresql more quick? (don't tell me to cut the database :))

 

OS version: 2.4.20-gentoo-r7

RAM: 512MB

CPU:i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1800+

 

Thanks.

Regards,
Michal